www.salvationarmy.org.uk/generation

OverviewThe Salvation Army is running projects all over the world, helping provide people with access to small loans or grants, skills training and more to help them get on their feet and work their own way out of poverty. Here are some ideas for primary-aged children, exploring some of the issues connected with The Salvation Army’s GENERATION Resource Pack.

Please feel free to adapt these ideas. See the individual lesson plans for curriculum links

LessOn idea 1 – attitudes tO MOney – is it fair that sOMe peOpLe have MOre than Others?

ObjectiveTo explore the question: ‘what is fair and unfair in the distribution of wealth in the world?’

curricuLuM LinksPSHE/Citizenship

1a to talk and write about their opinions, and explain their views, on issues that affect themselves and society•

2a to research, discuss and debate topical issues, problems and events•

2e to reflect on spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues, using imagination to understand other people’s •experiences

Religious Education

Reflect on ideas of right and wrong and their own and others responses to them.•

starter activity (10 Minutes)To introduce the concept of ‘shifting the balance’, put children into four groups. Have a series of small tasks for each group to complete in 5 minutes. These could be simple classroom tasks like sorting out books, sharpening pencils, etc. Explain that in 5 minutes when the tasks have been completed the children are going to be paid for their work. When paying the children, using imitation money, give one group £10 each, one group £5 each and one group 80p each. Following this, ask the children how they feel about how much they have been paid. Was this fair or unfair?

discussiOn (15-20 Minutes)Show images or the PowerPoint slide of the celebrities’ earnings (PPT Slide 2). Ask the children if they know who they are, what they are known for and encourage them to contribute anything that they notice about how they look. Do you like their clothes/car/shoes? How much money do you think they earn? What makes you think that they have lots of money?

Explain to the children that we presume celebrities have lots of money by the way they dress, look and live. Because they may be earning a lot of money, many people look up to them. We all have different ideas of money and, in our country, we have a lot of it, no matter how hard up our families might seem. Although we may look at these celebrities as being wealthy and much richer than we are, we all have more than enough to live on in the United Kingdom.

Explain that in 20061 (PPT Slide 3):

50% of the world’s wealth was owned by the richest 2% of adults.•

1% of the world’s wealth was owned by the poorest 50% of adults.•

Owning possessions totalling £1,500 per adult placed a household in the richest half of the world’s wealth •distribution in the year 2000. (This is less than the average family car in the UK is worth.)

Someone with belongings totalling £39,000 would be in the richest 10% of adults in the world. (This is much •less than the average family house or flat in the UK.)

People with more than £320,000 belong to the richest 1% of people in the world. Worldwide there are 37 •million people in this group

Show images of people in developing countries from the GENERATION resource pack. Explain that these are just some of the 1.4 billion people in the world that only, or used to, earn around 80 pence per day (PPT Slides 4-5).

True Story‘An Italian footballer has become a hero on and off the pitch for asking his team to pay him only the minimum wage. While some of his team-mates at Roma football club earn millions, Damiano Tommasi has requested a salary of €1,500 (£1,013) a month. After being out of the game for months with a knee injury, the 31-year-old player said he simply wanted to return to playing football at the highest level and economic considerations were low on his list of priorities. A modest salary was enough for his needs, he said, and he was still earning more than many ordinary Italians.2’

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1 www.mindfully.org 2 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/nov/06/football.italy

www.salvationarmy.org.uk/generation

activity (15-20 Minutes)The following questions are to stimulate discussion and to encourage the children to think about what is fair or unfair about the world’s distribution of wealth. They could be used as the format for a class discussion or debate or be worked on in small groups.

Why do they think that Damiano Tommasi has become a hero in Italy?•

Do the children think it is fair that some people earn so much and some people earn so little? •

Why do they think that some people have more money than others?•

If they earned as much as celebrities what would they spend their money on?•

pLenary (5-10 Minutes)Ask the children for ideas of how people in these countries could be helped. Do they know of any organisations that are helping? Have they done anything personally to help people in other countries who have less than they do?

resOurcesPictures of celebrities from magazines•

Plastic coins and imitation paper money•

Images of people in developing countries from the GENERATION resource pack•

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www.salvationarmy.org.uk/generation

LessOn idea 2 – Living Off 80p a day

ObjectiveTo understand the difference between wants, needs and rights

curricuLuM Links PSHE/Citizenship

2a to research, discuss and debate topical issues, problems and events•

2h to recognise the role of voluntary, community and pressure groups•

5d to make real choices and decisions [for example, about issues affecting their health and wellbeing such as smoking; •on the use of scarce resources; how to spend money, including pocket money and contributions to charities]

starter activity (15 Minutes)Use a range of magazine pictures, catalogues and newspapers to make two collages, one of essentials and one of luxuries. This could be done individually, in pairs or as a large-scale group project. Compare the two collages. What do we notice? Are there more items on the essentials collage or the luxuries collage? Were there items that we consider to be essentials that really belong on the luxuries collage or vice versa?

discussiOn (20 Minutes)Explain that the world’s income is unfairly imbalanced towards the few rich people and away from the majority who are poor. The poorest people in our world, 1.4 billion of them in fact, live on less than 1.25 dollars a day, that’s about 80 pence (PPT Slide 6). 80 pence to cover all your food, water, clothing, children’s education, health care and anything else that you need to provide for yourself and your family.

Ask the children to brainstorm the things they may need to survive each day. Ask them to think of basic needs. Which of these would they need to spend money on to survive each week? Ask the children to write their top five needs on individual whiteboards and how much they think these items would cost per day. Alternatively discuss this as a whole class then write this up on a whiteboard or flip chart.

Show the children a list of these things with costs next to them.

In 2008 the average family spent £471 per week3 (PPT Slide 7). This included

£63 a week on transport (includes cost of owning a car and public transport)•

£60 a week on recreation and culture (including TV, computers, books, leisure activities and holidays) •

£53 a week – Housing (excluding mortgage costs), fuel and power •

£51 a week – Food and non-alcoholic drink purchases (£13.10 of which was spent on meat and fish, £3.70 on •fresh vegetables, and £3.00 on fresh fruit.) Non-alcoholic drinks accounted for £4.00 of weekly expenditure, and £2.10 per week was spent on chocolate and confectionery.

prObLeM-sOLving activity (20 Minutes) (ppt sLide 8)Give each child coins to the value of 80p and a range of everyday items from a local supermarket and put prices on the objects. Ask the children to put together items that total 80p. It may also be a good idea to include sweets and crisps or comics. If computers are available, the children could use online supermarket websites to put together shopping lists that total 80p. The children could draw the items that total 80p on a shopping basket template. Discuss how little 80p actually buys and yet many people earn less than this per day in order to provide many of these items for us.

Ask them to work in groups of 4-6 to decide how they could spend their money and survive. (Some children may decide to put their money together or spend all of their week’s money, £5.60, at once.)

pLenary (5-10 Minutes)Ask the children for ideas on how they would manage to live on so little. Would they still be able to eat the same sort of food they do now? How would they ensure that their meals are healthy?

Explain that no matter where you live, 80 pence doesn’t get you very far. That means that these 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty are not able to earn anywhere near enough to adequately support themselves or their family. These people, along with a further 1.2 billion people living on less than £1.30 a day, are in desperate need for people to help them.

resOurcesPrimary Lesson Plans PowerPoint from GENERATION resource pack•

Magazine images of essentials and luxuries•

Plastic coins 10s, 20s and 50s enough for each child to have 80p•

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www.salvationarmy.org.uk/generation

LessOn idea 3 – hOw we Must shift the baLance – what is credit?

ObjectiveTo understand what credit is and how it can help people in developing countries

curricuLuM LinksReligious Education

3m beliefs in action in the world: how religions and beliefs respond to global issues of human rights, fairness •social justice and the importance of the environment

PSHE/ Citizenship1a to talk and write about their opinions, and explain their views, on issues that affect themselves and society•

starter activity (15 Minutes)What do we need to be able to live? In pairs, make a list of the things we think we need in order to live. Share these ideas with the rest of the group. Think about practical needs, eg food and water, but also less obvious needs eg safety, shelter, love. After producing a group list, ask the children in pairs to consider what may happen if one or more of those needs aren’t met. The children may come up with ideas that may seem like essentials to them eg television. Discuss: What happens if we don’t have television? Can we still live?

What do we do if we don’t have enough money to buy the things we need?

discussiOn (20 Minutes)Hold up a credit card and ask the children if they know what it is. Ask how and when they would use it and find out what their understanding is of how it works. (PPT Slide 9)

Explain to the children that many people in this country rely on credit to live. It means that we can use credit cards such as this one to buy things that we need and then we receive a bill at the end of the month telling us how much we have spent and how much we need to pay. However, this isn’t the only kind of credit that people rely on.

Ask if anybody can think of any more types of credit? Ask the children to make suggestions and encourage them as well as giving them some help if needed. Suggestions may include;

Mortgage•Car finance•Student loan•Personal loan•Overdraft•Store cards•

For each suggestion, perhaps you could have a picture to represent it and then stick them on to a flip chart or a large board.

Explain that for our families having access to credit has often been vital to enable them to progress through life. As you grow older you may need credit to buy a car, take out a loan to attend university or to buy a house. Without access to these loans people would not be able to pursue these goals.

Explain that our families may rely on these forms of credit to progress through life; people in the developing world who have a lot less than we do rely on borrowing money just to meet their basic needs. They may require help to buy food or to start a business, basic rights that would help their families and local communities. In these countries it is often difficult or impossible for these people to borrow from a bank. Often they have to borrow from a loan shark. (A loan shark is someone who lends money but charges a lot of interest. For example, people may borrow £50 but end up owing several hundred pounds. The loan shark then puts enormous pressure on the person to pay back, sometimes threatening or using violence to get them to pay.)

Show images from the GENERATION resource pack and explain that The Salvation Army is helping people in this situation all around the world to earn an income, often through starting small businesses by lending them small amounts of money. This is called ‘microcredit’.

pLenary (5-10 Minutes)Encourage the children to think some more about the loan system that The Salvation Army is operating. Do they think that it is fair to lend people this money? Why not just give it to them to help them start their business? Perhaps older children could hold a class debate with people arguing for each side.

resOurcesA credit card•GENERATION resource pack images PDF or PowerPoint•

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es LessOn idea 4 – MicrOcredit – faith in actiOn

ObjectiveTo understand how The Salvation Army is using microcredit to help some of the people in the world’s poorest communities.

curricuLuM LinksReligious Education

3m beliefs in action in the world: how religions and beliefs respond to global issues of human rights, fairness, •social justice and the importance of the environment

PSHE/ Citizenship

4g where individuals, families and groups can get help and support.•

5d make real choices and decisions [for example, about issues affecting their health and wellbeing such as •smoking; on the use of scarce resources; how to spend money, including pocket money and contributions to charities]

starter activity (5-10 Minutes)Watch the GENERATION film from the resource pack, or one of the case story videos.

and/or

Hand out the case stories document, one to each group. Allow the children time to read the various case stories.

discussiOnExplain that some families in poorer countries do not have enough money to cover the costs of their basic needs. They are unable to afford enough food or pay for medical care for their families. Unlike in the United Kingdom, where if people have no money the Government helps them, in these communities there is no government help available. If they want to borrow money often they have to go to a loan shark.

Question Does anybody know what a loan shark is?

A loan shark is someone who lends money but charges a lot of interest. For example, people may borrow £50 but end up owing several hundred pounds. The loan shark then puts enormous pressure on the person to pay it back, sometimes threatening or using violence to get them to pay. This traps the people for far longer in a cycle of poverty.

Explain we are going to find out how The Salvation Army is helping some of these people by lending them money. This money is enabling them to start their own small businesses so they can earn enough to support their families.

activity (30 Minutes)In their groups give children £1 each (in imitation money) and explain that how microcredit works is that they use their £1 to buy what they need to make or buy something to sell. They can pay back their £1 from their profit then borrow more the next week or month to expand their business. Ask the children as a group to think of an idea for a small business they could create as a group that would raise money for charity. One idea could be using their money to buy ingredients to make cakes, sell the cakes and donate the profits.

resOurcesCase stories document/films from the GENERATION resource pack•

GENERATION film from the resource pack•

extensiOn activitiesAsk the children what businesses they think people in the developing world would set up. If they were •given the opportunity to set up their own business, what would it be? Encourage some or all of the children to set up a social enterprise project at school, perhaps setting up a cake stall, washing staff cars or selling something simple such as sandwiches. They could raise money for GENERATION projects across the world. Encourage them to think about what they would need to consider/who would be in charge/resources, etc. The children could work as a team to put together a business plan and decide their roles within that eg, design, manufacture, advertising and marketing. The project could run along the lines of The Apprentice TV show or the children’s version Beat the Boss. However, any profit made would then be sent to The Salvation Army’s own GENERATION projects. The product does not have to be complicated. Ideas include tea light holders, glass painting, cakes, T-shirt painting, cards or bookmarks. (For help with this you could look at the ’Starting your own Microbusiness’ document on the GENERATION resource pack.)

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es Instead of starting up a profit-making project, perhaps some or all of the children could start up a Hope •

project. Ask them to think about ways they could spread hope around the school (homework help, bullying support, self-esteem activities, etc) and to establish this to support those who perhaps need this kind of practical help.

key stage 2 curricuLuM Links Religious Education

3m beliefs in action in the world: how religions and beliefs respond to global issues of human rights, fairness, •social justice and the importance of the environment

PSHE/ Citizenship

2a to research, discuss and debate topical issues, problems and events•

2h to recognise the role of voluntary, community and pressure groups•

2j that resources can be allocated in different ways and that these economic choices affect individuals, •communities and the sustainability of the environment

cOntact usFor help or advice with any of these ideas and resources contact:

Schools & Colleges Unit

+44 (0)20 7367 4706

schools@salvationarmy.org.uk

www.salvationarmy.org.uk/schools

To find out more about The Salvation Army International Development (UK) or for more resources contact:

+44 (0)20 7367 4777

id@salvationarmy.org.uk

www.salvationarmy.org.uk/id

www.facebook.com/SAIDUK

www.twitter.com/SAIDUK